Summit Explores Shipping on Gulf Coast

Todays News

The future of transportation in the Gulf Coast doesn’t just mean shuttling around more people, but also things. “Yes, it's going to be important as we look forward to think about how we can accommodate our tourists but we still need to move goods,” says Leigh Holt, planning manager for the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization. “What happens if the traffic gets worse in the tourist season, which is very important to our economy, but it means we can’t get goods and services in and out? We have to plan appropriately.”

That goal will be central to discussions at the Sarasota/Manatee MPO’s first Freight and Economy Development summit being held today at Port Manatee, where local leaders in tourism, business development and logistics will meet with visiting leaders from the Department of Transportation to plot the future of shipping in the region. Holt says the event provides a rare chance to bring Tallahassee leaders like Bob Emerson, manager of the state Seaport Office, and Mickey Fitzgerald, manager of the state Freight and Multimodal Operations, Rail Office, together with public and private sector leaders, including Tisha Keller, vice president of the Florida Trucking Association, and Robert Richardson, vice president of Transportation for Bradenton-based Beall’s.

The event, which begins at 12:30 at Port Manatee’s intermodal center, will look at how all transportation infrastructure in the region can be brought together in a synergy to benefit the region over coming decades. Major corporations operating in the region, including World Direct Shipping and Tropicana, all will offer presentations to the public on their logistical needs, while officials from Visit Sarasota County and the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport will discuss how tourism is expected to evolve in the future. “It has to be a system that works together,” Holt notes. “Not all ports in Florida have rail available, but we do. We need all elements to work together—the port, the rails, the roads—in a safe system that works.”

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